Fat Wreck Chords, June 19, 2020
Bad Cop/Bad Cop get personal on The Ride.
Bad Cop/Bad Cop are onto something new. After dropping two furious records with lots of political themes and seething indignation in their voices, they’ve decided to get a little more personal and a little more uplifting on new record The Ride, recognizing that the personal is also the political. Considering the state of affairs at the moment, the message is fascinating.
On The Ride, the direct and topical political anger is still around, coming through crystal clear at times. “Certain Kind Of Monster” opens with some gorgeous multipart harmonies before barreling ahead with a lead guitar and roaring gallop that reminds me a bunch of Bad Religion. The vocal cadence and melodies provide all the hooks as they go after American immigration policy with biting lines like “don’t take them away, from all their families”. It destroys. “Pursuit Of Liberty” follows suit and again gets topical. They throw in some fantastic “whoa-oh’s” while asking more pointed questions and delivering more astute observations on American immigration policies, attacking immigration camps, rigid deportation policies, and feelings of disconnect from their government. Bad Cop/Bad Cop do this direct and righteous political stuff well.
But The Ride pulls an interesting trick, filtering political ideas through personal notions of empowerment, a sort of companion to the raw and pure indignation and fury they’ve mostly hung with previously. Behind muted chugging guitars, wailing vocal hooks, and fantastic harmonies, “Chisme” suggests that maybe life gets better when you drop the baggage you carry around. “I Choose” and “Community” both go full-on empowering behind gloriously emphatic guitars and pounding drums. “Community” implores people to find strength in numbers while “I Choose” calls out for people to create the world that they want to exist in. And maybe the most poignant moment comes on “Breastless”, Stacey Dee’s account of her breast cancer diagnosis. Over rhythmic guitars, pacey drums, and hooks and melodies for days, heart-wrenching lyrics are uttered, expressing self-doubt, anxiety, and vulnerability from a firsthand perspective. It’s revelatory in its discovery of personal strength through struggle.
It’s hard to find much to complain about on The Ride. “Perpetual Motion Machine” has a good message, but the rhythmic bounce and swagger are just alright for me. “The Mirage” is a mid-tempo growler with some melodies, but again, it’s just okay. And tame acoustic closer “Sing With Me” isn’t my favorite, though one of my favorite lines on the record is here (“so, sing with me, or sing your own song, I don’t mind, just as long as you find your voice”). None of these are misses, just not hits in my head.
Bad Cop/Bad Cop’s The Ride is one worth taking. They sing with the same attitude and gusto they’ve shown on their other stuff, but they’ve opened things up on here, finding strength in response, love, and self. It’s a step forward, timed well for our current world.
You might like this if:
- You like Bad Religion-style melodic punk rock
- You like something that’ll make you think
You might not if:
- You don’t like music that preaches self-improvement; that’s too much hard work
- You don’t like melodic punk rock
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
